Written by Ben Cox – Two local ladies have begun working on a venue for weddings and events on the site of a former farm with ties to the origins of Early. Immediately behind Heartland Mall sits Stagecoach Venues, close enough to town you can hear traffic if you listen very closely but it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere, thanks to the trees that surround the 21-acre historic farm. The entrance to the property is right around the first curve on Old Comanche Road behind the mall.
The cabin dates back to the late 1800’s, and will eventually become a “getting ready room” for brides-to-be
As you drive in, an old cabin is visible down the crushed rock driveway. That cabin dates back the 1800’s, and is next to a stone building that used to be an actual stage coach and mail route stop on the way from Fort Worth to places west.
The owners, Nancy Gathright and Pam Ribble plan to turn the old stagecoach stop into a reception hall, to use as a wedding reception venue or to host corporate retreats and other functions. Upon entering the two story sandstone building, you immediately notice the temperature drops several degrees while you look at the old timbers and original stables. The boards still show saw marks from the milling process.
One entrance to the old stagecoach barn, with timbers still in place from the original horse stalls
The farm was covered in “Johnson grass that was as high as the roof on the cabin” when the current owners first saw it. When they were told that a developer who wanted to raze the property and buildings to build warehouses, they said “OK, we’re gonna make an offer!”
Gathright tells a story of finding a piece of the past while cleaning what was the basement of a building and had become a trash pile for the family. A part of a cup with a perfect logo of a stagecoach materialized from the debris, and Gathright calls it a “God wink” on a day where they had asked themselves “more than once why (they) were doing this.”
The basement to an old house or hotel, the owners hope to turn it into a sitting and eating area
They have owned the land just over a year, having bought it from the family of Trewiss Pelt, who farmed the land and ran a vegetable and fruit stand which remains on the property. Mr. Pelt owned the farm from 1963 until his death in 2008. He bought it from his employer Irma Cleveland Jones. Her family owned and farmed the land from the late 1800’s until selling to Pelt.
Mr Pelts original vegetable and fruit stand, with its original roof still intact
The land will soon become home to one of the first tractors in Brown County, which was purchased by Mr. Pelt in the 1950’s, as soon as Gathright and Ribble can afford to buy it from Pelt’s nephew.
The stage sits on the back of this 1960’s truck, ready to relocate to another part of the property as the need arises
In a back pasture sits a yellow 1960’s Chevy truck with what looks like an over sized bed on it. The vehicle has been set up as a mobile stage, an idea they borrowed from the TV show Nashville. There stage has power run to a pole behind the truck, so that small bands or groups can set up without having to compete with a generator to be heard.
Another of the vintage buildings on the property
The pair is preparing for their Stagecoach Market Days, on April 7th-8th, which will feature vendors selling crafts, gift items, vintage items, decor and lots more. The event will begin at 9 a.m. both days and end at 6 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday. Vendors interested in a booth can contact Stagecoach Venues through their website.
